Based on your OP sounds like you're looking like something you could wear for skiing/snowboarding but isn't so outrageous that you can't wear it to the office on a super cold day.
Out of the question I suppose
I saw a couple suggestions of Canada Goose in the thread. Very nice jackets for day to day wear, walking the dog, but IMO they're overkill for Calgary weather. If you live in Winterpeg or up north, sure amazing jackets but you really only need something like a Canada Goose jacket when it's really cold out. If you have money burning a whole in your pocket or want to get the latest fashion jacket, sure. Good luck finding one though, Hollywooder's wearing them have turned them into the "in" item so everybody's selling out pretty quickly. I wouldn't wear one skiing either because they wouldn't be breathable enough.
If you really want to blow money on something that is amazing quality and will last that you can wear skiing/snowboarding I would recommend an Arc'teryx shell and layer up underneath it. Or if you don't want to bother with the layering up business a Fission or Venta would work very well.
I just ordered a Stingray today and I can't wait for it to come in.
That said, Arc'teryx is probably overkill for what you're looking for too.
In terms of brands my general rankings of quality/performance would be something along these lines:
Arc'teryx, Canada Goose, Patagonia
MEC stuff, Helly Hanson, Mountain Hardware,
Marmot, The North Face (Depends what you get, some North Face stuff is amazing, some is price point garbage)
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Columbia
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Firefly, Ripzone
So yeah, my recommendation would be to get something from MEC, Helly Hanson, Marmot, Mountain Hardware or potentially North Face. If you go to a store just be sure to explain what you want to use it for and hopefully they can direct you to the appropriate products.
A nice site to check out reviews and detail on several brands is:
http://www.backcountry.com/mens-ski-jackets
I've never ordered from them myself but from everything I hear they're amazing to deal with and have no problems with you returning a jacket if you decide it's the wrong size or not what you wanted.
In terms of down filled versus synthetics it depends on how much active activities you're going to be doing with it. If you wear it skiing and you do some heavy tree skiing or something where you work up a sweat down is a bad choice - doesn't do anything when it's wet. You'd want to go with something synthetic (Primaloft, Coreloft, etc).
Personally I have a three in one Columbia that I don't mind right now but I've got a Arc'teryx Stingray on the way and am going to layer up with an Arc'teryx Atom LT (very lightweight, warm midlayer style jacket) and Helly Hanson Warm for ski days.
I work at an outdoor store at the moment so if you have any questions feel free to shoot me a PM.
