I'm of the opinion that most any cantilever brake can be made to stop you just as well as a dual pivot caliper, v-brake, or disk. The issue isn't the brake itself, it's the set-up. Cantilever brakes have an almost absurd amount of flexibility in set-up, but they only work well in one or two of the thousands of possible variations. Ditch the link wire and use a yoke, and then spend some time reading about cantilever geometry, then spend some time fiddling with your brakes. It shouldn't take more than a few hours until you know how to best set up your cantilevers.

Some models are easier to set up than others, I've heard of people having a pretty easy time with the Tektro CR720.