V brake lever with calipers

MTB vee brakes have a different pull ratio than road caliper pull ratio.

They make specific levers for each.

I've used normal mtb vee levers on road bikes before and it was fine, when I used the brakes, it just felt like it stopped with small amounts of movement of the lever. So modulation wasn't great. But it worked.

Alternatively, you could use "cross top" levers which should work better than normal MTB levers.

Cross top levers, used a lot in CX and touring bikes.

Since you are buying new parts anyway why not just get the correct levers. We are talking about brakes and it is important that they work at their best not pretty good. The levers you need will be described as cantilever brake compatible. There are even models with two cable anchor points so they can be used with both canti or linear pull.