The reason why I like Canon:

1- I think they look nicer. Nikon SLRs look kinda cheap to me (but obviously they put out just as good of quality photos).
2- I like the way it feels in my hand vs. Nikon cameras.
3- My mom shot Canon so I went with Canon mostly because of that

Honestly, if I was in the market for an SLR and just getting started (having never owned an SLR before) I would look into both brands unbiased. I kind of got "pushed" towards the Canon because that's what my mom has always used, but I LOVE the brand. If I didn't have the slight use of my mom's cameras beforehand, who knows, I may have liked the way Nikon felt in my hands better. But I was already slightly used to my mom's 10D and film Rebel when I decided to get my XT, so it wasn't a hard adjustment for me. Plus she already had some lenses, and we share all of our lenses, so that makes things cheaper.