Don’t get dragged into the manufacturer religous wars. The Nikon/Sony/Canon are all close enough, and not worth jumping system for. Both the Nikon and Canon are excellent cameras.
If you do get into photography, both Nikon and Canon have excellent lens ranges, I’d argue Canon’s is better, or at least with fewer compatibility issues. None of the other systems has anything like the lens line up, but if they have everything you’ll want that isn’t an issue.
Opinions on the EOS-M are varied. But it is very cheap these days and has excellent image quality.
Try a bridge camera in a realistic setting first. You might find the speed of focus and shutter to be too slow for action work. The EOS-M has a particularly bad reputation in this area.