which canon camera are you comparing it to? in any case, i'm not a fan of the sony at all. you're not looking directly through the lens. what you see in the viewfinder is a little display like you would find in a video camera. not my cup of tea at all.
the sony is a fixed lens camera. i would call it more of a high end point and shoot. with a similarly priced canon (digi rebel) you can get a real dslr and be able to buy new lenses down the road.
if it were me, i would be comparing the digi rebel and the nikon d70/d50... and i'd end up with the digi rebel.
What try camera are you using now? If film, what do you spend a year on film and processing? What want type photograph are you going to be doing? What are your needs and wants in opinions? Budget, Cost versus expected camera life. These are just a few things you need to think about.
So make a list of the pros and cons of the cameras you like and go from there. I aggee with photoflavor about also looking at Nikon d50.
Yeah technically I'm pretty sure the Sony is not an SLR. It's an "SLR-style" camera, which basically means it's a point-and-shoot with a better lens and hopefully some better image processing inside the camera. If you are looking at something like the Canon Digital Rebel (or Digi Rebel XT or 10D or 20D or 1D, etc.), then I would definitely reccomend you go with Canon.
Go to www.dpreview.com and compare the size of the sensors in the Sony to the Canon (assuming D-rebel). That should tell you enough to make the right decision.